Has PTI started fake overseas membership campaign?

ISLAMABAD: Rana Wasif, a resident of Lahore, is among those millions of Pakistanis who have never been abroad in their entire life. But he was stunned when he received an email from PTI, US Chapter, congratulating him for contributing $120 and thus making him an overseas member of the party.

Wasif has no link, whatsoever, with PTI except he is a regular donor of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital. He claims his data has been taken from Shaukat Khanum as he used to donate money from his credit card which contains all the necessary information, including his email.

He claimed that the PTI has started making fake memberships of overseas Pakistanis to justify its illegal foreign funding, and, for this purpose, data of SKMH is being used.  It is pertinent to mention here that the case of illegal foreign funding is expected to land in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for thorough investigations soon. It is revealed that the data of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital’s donors is being used for the fake membership.

Interestingly, the fake membership campaign of the party’s USA Chapter has been started after the Supreme Court of Pakistan started the hearing in PTI funding case. Wasif received an email on July 06, 2017, from PTI USA Chapter.

The said email took him by surprise when he came to know that he have contributed $120 to Pakistan Tehreek- e- Insaf, US Chapter, thus making him an official member of the party. The registration number issued to him is 330129797 which is still available if one opens the following link- https://overseas.insaf.pk/us/membership_information/.

Interestingly, Rana Wasif has never visited the USA in his entire life and has never paid any such amount to any chapter of PTI neither in Pakistan nor overseas. After receiving this email, he sent three different emails to verify whether this is a real email or just a spam. However, no reply came from the said email.

To verify the said revelation, this scribe then visited PTI Central Secretariat and to know whether the matter raised by Rana Wasif is real or fabricated and fake. After going through the evidence and the email ID from which the membership certificate was sent, the PTI office bearers claimed this is a fake email address as Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf email ID contains e.g example@insaf.pk not the one like membership@finance.insaf.pk. However this scribe opened the link of PTI overseas website https://overseas.insaf.pk/  in front of PTI office bearers in its Central Secretariat. The said website gives options to click any country where the party has its members and by clicking the USA chapter it gives five different options including an information button. When the membership number 330129797 given to Rana Wasif by PTI USA chapter was entered it gave the exact details mentioned by the complainant. When the same was shown to the PTI office bearers then instead of giving any logical answer the office bearers said only the office bearers of concerned chapter can answer this matter.

The News then contacted PTI Central Secretary Finance Sardar Azhar Tariq who handles the financial matters of the party to know his point of view about this matter. Sardar Azhar said there is no such email existed in PTI’s official correspondence. However when this scribe mentioned about the originality of the email and that Rana Wasif’s name as PTI USA member, he said this can’t happen but if it is so then there must be some fake thing done in the relevant chapter. He said if any such thing has happened they will conduct an inquiry into this matter.

“Kindly provide us the said email sent by PTI chapter to the complainant and his registration number we will conduct an inquiry into this matter”, commented PTI Secretary Finance.

The News then contacted Rana Wasif who informed that he works in an advertising agency and living near Shaukat Khanam Hospital Lahore. He said when he received the email he was shocked that how come a party in the USA has his personal information.

“I am unable to resolve this FAKE claim and FORGED documentation of the PTI. I have sent emails to the concerned authority in the US and also to replied this email to get the answer but have not received any reply yet. Being a Pakistani Citizen, they have no right whatsoever to use my name without my permission and will. I sent them following questions after receiving the email Why have they given me this membership? Who paid against my name for membership? How did they get my personal information? What was the objective? However no response came from the PTI USA chapter”, he said.

He said the only thing I remember about any linkage with this membership is that he was a regular donor of Shaukat Khanum hospital and regularly paid donation through his credit card. “I believe they obtain my information from Shaukat Khanum data because my credit card contains all my personal information including my CNIC number and email address. I even tried to check the FARA website so that I could confirm whether I have been registered with FARA as PTI is a registered firm in FARA”, he claimed.

It is pertinent to mention here that PTI is registered under the US Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA). PTI-USA LLC is the party’s agent and is registered with FARA on the name of an individual and donations from overseas Pakistanis were accepted on an individual basis. The purpose of the LLC is to provide membership to Pakistani-Americans and gather donations from them.